Neesa Gopaul probe…
THE Headmistress and at least three other teachers of the prestigious Queen’s College are likely to be sanctioned in the form of demotions and/or denial of seniority based on recommendations made by one of several teams probing the circumstances leading up to the  tragic death of 16-year-old schoolgirl, Neesa Gopaul.

Speaking at his regular post-Cabinet news briefing at Office of the President yesterday,  Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon said consequent to the findings of a team probing the sequence of unfortunate events leading to Gopaul’s death, some four to five staffers of the school will be penalised for failing to adhere to expected procedures.

Neesa Gopaul’s body was found in a suitcase on October 2 in a creek near the Emerald Tower Resort on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.

According to Dr. Luncheon, there were repetitive failures on the part of the administration of the school in handling the Neesa Gopaul case.

He said Reports are now available from the teams assembled to examine the roles of Government functionaries in the Ministries of Human Services and Social Security; and Education.

“From those teams, recommendations have been made regarding the staff and those deemed culpable and recommendations are now available from the Human Services Ministry and have been publicised,” the HPS said, in reference to the first report, the findings of which were released on Thursday by Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand in which recommendations were made to sack two officers of the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA).

Manickchand, also announced that another staffer of the Agency, which falls within her ministry, has been barred from upward mobility within the CPA.

Luncheon yesterday said “recommendations in similar impact and gravity” have been made in the Queen’s College report that deals with certain staff members (about four to five, including the headmistress), being recommended to be disciplined in the form of demotions and denial of seniority.

“Yes…from the Headmistress, the Deputy [Headmistress]…I would safely say about four or five members of staff have attracted the attention of the team set up by the Ministry to make recommendations based on the findings unveiled through the efforts of the investigative team,” he said, when asked who from the prestigious school will be sanctioned.

“The task of uncovering fault and flaws that exposed young Gopaul to the wicked designs of others, that task has grown apace. Reports are now available from the teams assembled to examine the roles of Government functionaries, Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, and the Ministry of Education, and from those teams recommendations have been made regarding the staff and those deemed errant and culpable,” Dr. Luncheon told reporters.

He said the actual compilation of all that went wrong with Government and Government agency input into the case of Neesa Gopaul would be done “and assuredly would form part of the learning experience for those who enter into the delivery of social goods and services on behalf of their employer, the Government of Guyana.”

He said the teams had to come to grips with a failure of reporting in the case of the girl’s death. He disclosed that in 2009, considerable evidence had already been accumulated about the dire straits under which the Queen’s College student had existed.

“The evidence was there in all forms – verbal, in pictures and in other forms,” Dr. Luncheon said.

“And it would seem that whatever interventions were made, they operated at a level that did not allow for senior, and definitely officials, in school administration to be involved, to be knowledgeable,” he added.

The sanctions that have been recommended reflect a “repetitive failure” of the system since “it is not one time that her plight came knocking at the door of the school”, Dr. Luncheon said, noting that “…those failures were repetitive”.

During her disclosure of the findings of the Human Services report on Thursday, Minister Manickchand said: “We know exactly where the system erred, why it erred and what we need to do within the agency…so that we could, as far as possible, prevent the consequences of these breaches.”
The Minister said Gopaul’s case had been with the Child Care and Protection Agency for almost one year.

According to her, the Ministry’s response to that report was to remove the child and her sister from the home and place them in the care of their maternal grandparents.

But they soon after returned the children to the care of their parents, saying that the $8,000 a week was insufficient to maintain the children.

According to the findings, the case worker failed to report this development to her superior, as is mandatory and Neesa discontinued counselling sessions.

This, too, was not reported to the case workers’ superior. After making several attempts to contact the child at home, even with the assistance of the Police, the case worker made contact with her at the school, against the strictures of the Head Teacher.

The case worker reported that Neesa told her she no longer wanted to be a part of the counselling sessions since she was no longer being abused. This was not reported by the case worker.

According to the Minister’s report, Neesa surfaced again on August 24, 2010, when the agency received a report of alleged sexual abuse from a social worker unconnected to the agency or the Ministry.

The case was then assigned a new case worker. The new case worker made four visits to the home in a bid to talk with her, but all of the visits were unsuccessful.

The first case worker then advised the new case worker that if she wanted to make contact with the child, then she should visit the school. But this course of action was not pursued, nor did the person make contact with the Police. She is said to have failed to seek further help for the child, whose body – battered beyond recognition – was found shortly thereafter.

Manickchand’s report recommended that two of the officers of the agency be dismissed and another barred from upward mobility within the agency.

Neesa’s mother Bibi Sharima Gopaul and stepfather Jarvis Small have since been charged with her gruesome murder.